Sarasota News Leader

04/25/2014

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Commissioner Carolyn Mason, responding to pressure from Englewood Realtor and local LGBT rights activist Julia Nowak, asked County Attorney Steve DeMarsh to report back to the board on how human rights ordi- nances work for other local governments. DeMarsh did so this spring, with a pair of memos laying out the current legal situation for gays and lesbians. But would the commis- sion act on the issue? That was the question Mason put to the board during a meeting held Tuesday, April 22. Mason served on the Sarasota City Commission when it approved its own human rights ordi- nance. "I think that has worked pretty well for the City of Sarasota," she said. "You've seen their process, how it all works, but I needed to see what my board wanted to do." The response: silence. Eventually, Chairman Charles Hines broke the quiet time, saying his reticence to support the idea was not because he thought it wasn't needed. "I felt that this is a statewide issue," he said, "and it becomes difficult when local communities have overlapping ordinances." At the same time, Hines continued, he under- stood the argument that "the state has not stepped up and you've got to start somewhere." He compared the proposal for a human rights ordinance to the recently approved domes- tic partnership registry, which gives gay and lesbian couples some rights in healthcare decision-making and more. Neither Commissioner Joe Barbetta nor Vice Chairwoman Christine Robinson chimed in, while Commissioner Nora Patterson said sim- ply, "I agree with what you've said, Charles." And that was that. The commission took no action. Nowak, whose persistence prompted Mason to bring up the concept in the first place, told the commission that because of fed- eral inaction, "it falls down to the states and the counties to protect us." She spoke with Mason immediately after the commission broke for lunch, and later told The Sarasota News Leader she's not giving up. "The state is not going to step up," she told the board, "so we do need counties and cities to all step up and do something about this." % County Commission Chairman Charles Hines. File photo Sarasota News Leader April 25, 2014 Page 24

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